Dr. David A. Ferrucci

David
A. Ferrucci, Ph.D.
is IBM Fellow, VP  DeepQA (“Watson”) Technologies,
at IBM’s T.J. Watson’s Research Center. His team
of 30 researchers focuses on developing technologies for
discovering
knowledge in natural language and leveraging those technologies in a
variety of intelligent search, data analytics, and knowledge management
solutions.

In 2007, Dave began exploring the feasibility of designing a
computer system that can rival human champions at the game of Jeopardy!.
Dubbed DeepQA, the project focused on advancing natural language
question answering using massively parallel evidence-based computing.
After winning support, he has set and driven the technical agenda
for Jeopardy! The IBM Challenge.

The Watson computer system designed by his team represents the
integration and advancement of many search, natural language processing,
and semantic technologies.

Following the Jeopardy! challenge, Dave and his team plan to
apply DeepQA technologies to areas like medicine, government, and law to
drive advances in computer supported intelligence and
decision-making.